Saw that on Fark. Pretty cool.
Be well, people of CoH.
Finally a humane way to move beached whales!
(read article)
Or um, a bacteria a millimeter in a solution. PROGRESS! It's just a matter of scale, I tell ya! Ramp it up boys, RAMP IT UP!
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No, that was the old technique, this one can move stuff metres... through air. Still only small stuff though.
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Originally Posted by QuietAmerican
Finally a humane way to move beached whales!
(read article) Or um, a bacteria a millimeter in a solution. PROGRESS! It's just a matter of scale, I tell ya! Ramp it up boys, RAMP IT UP! |
"Researchers from the Australian National University...."
Jeez...do they really have to go to all this trouble? Can't they just *walk* over and put another shrimp on the barbie?
Nice tech. Tractor beams are one of the biggest hurdles to space construction.
... Not really...
Tractor Beam grapples and moves an object, can even pull an object
This takes a beam of light and hits an object in a direction...
If anything this is a repulsor beam, not a tractor beam
Actually it doesn't even hit the object. It heats the air around the object and that causes the object to move. So it can't be used in space, because there's no air.
Tractor Beams aren't that impressive. Let me know when they can move a planet across a galaxy in a reasonable amount of time.
The first step in being sane is to admit that you are insane.
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Something tells me that this would be detrimental to life on said planet.
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Originally Posted by starphoenix
Tractor Beams aren't that impressive. Let me know when they can move a planet across a galaxy in a reasonable amount of time.
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Be well, people of CoH.
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If a civilization could move a planet across the galaxy, then they would be able to create planetary shields to protect it during the journey as well as creating an artificial sun to supply light and heat. Instantaneous travel would be even better assuming there is nothing required to protect the planet during flight.
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Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
Something tells me that this would be detrimental to life on said planet.
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The first step in being sane is to admit that you are insane.
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Covered quite well (imho) in the aptly-titled book Moving Mars, by Greg Bear.
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Originally Posted by starphoenix
Instantaneous travel would be even better assuming there is nothing required to protect the planet during flight.
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But as they explain, if you put two of these facing eachother, then you could move an object in either direction by manipulating the amount and intensity of light produced.|
Originally Posted by Durakken
... Not really...
Tractor Beam grapples and moves an object, can even pull an object This takes a beam of light and hits an object in a direction... If anything this is a repulsor beam, not a tractor beam |
I think this is very cool!
If all it does is push something... wouldn't it be closer to a 'pusher beam'?
Hell, I'd take this as a step closer to creating light sabers, not tractor beams... Especially is sleestack is right and it heats up the air around the object.
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Done! |
Originally Posted by starphoenix
Let me know when they can move a planet across a galaxy in a reasonable amount of time.
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http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
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From the article:|
Originally Posted by Rock_Crag
If all it does is push something... wouldn't it be closer to a 'pusher beam'?
Hell, I'd take this as a step closer to creating light sabers, not tractor beams... Especially is sleestack is right and it heats up the air around the object. |
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The device works by shining a hollow laser beam around tiny glass particles. The air surrounding the particle heats up, while the dark center of the beam stays cool. When the particle starts to drift out of the middle and into the bright laser beam, the force of heated air molecules bouncing around and hitting the particle's surface is enough to nudge it back to the center. A small amount of light also seeps into the darker middle part of the beam, heating the air on one side of the particle and pushing it along the length of the laser beam. If another such laser is lined up on the opposite side of the beam, the speed and direction the particle moves can be easily manipulated by changing the brightness of the beams. |
So the laser beam isn't actually touching the object, but heating the air around the object to move it.
it's a really stupid idea in my opinion. All it does is heat the surrounding atmosphere, whatever that is, which causes the particles/atoms to be more energetic, which causes them to become lighter causing them to rise...causing other particles/molecules to falls...
They learned to boil water with a billion times more energy v.v and yet they are still not mad scientists.
Tractor Beam
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